Exhaust leak

A

Ahmedalhajery

Member
A few days ago i decided to remove the muffler and resonator just for fun and to see how it sounds and man did it sound awesome. I only removed it for a day and a half then I re-installed them. But once i started the car back up after i re-installed them i noticed slight leak exactly where i removed the resonator and muffler which is where the muffler connects to the resonator pipe and also where the resonator pipe connects to the cat pipe. So i was wondering what caused this to happen and how to solve it. Could it be i just didn't tighten the bolts tight enough? (Note: i removed and installed all bolts using a hand wrench). Also is it possible that i installed the gasket backwards would that cause a leak? Im only noticing the leak once i start up the car which is weird, once i drive and repark the car it stops or reduces to a not noticeable rate i guess and I'm guessing it doesn't leak when i drive either. Of Course i intend to fix it if but out of curiosity could it hurt if i left it and not do anything about it? Would that harm anything? And thanks in advance.
 
Assuming the gaskets are all in good condition; otherwise that will cause the leak. I would go back and check all the bolts you put back on is tight. You may want to loosen each of the bolts that you touched and then align the flanges and tighten them up again. Also when tighten the bolts, don't tighten one all the way just yet. Tighten each one enough but allow some play on each until you got all the bolts in, then go back and tighten each 100%.
 
la_fx35 said:
Assuming the gaskets are all in good condition; otherwise that will cause the leak. I would go back and check all the bolts you put back on is tight. You may want to loosen each of the bolts that you touched and then align the flanges and tighten them up again. Also when tighten the bolts, don't tighten one all the way just yet. Tighten each one enough but allow some play on each until you got all the bolts in, then go back and tighten each 100%.
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Thanks man i'll try that and see if it works, but an idea came to mind what if I install 2 gaskets in each place instead of 1 could that possibly help? Also do you have any idea if it would harm anything if i leave it for a few days or is it something that must be done asap?
 
In my opinion, its a bad idea to double up on the gaskets... higher chance of future leaks when the they start deteriorate. It will not hurt anything on your since, its behind all the O2 sensors. Just annoying to hear it.
 
la_fx35 said:
In my opinion, its a bad idea to double up on the gaskets... higher chance of future leaks when the they start deteriorate. It will not hurt anything on your since, its behind all the O2 sensors. Just annoying to hear it.
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Well basically i tightened everything up and ended up threading one bolt by accident[emoji29] and there is still leaking. I figured the problem might be with the gaskets i took i pic of it once i removed it here it is 42e08735fb6a3ead173b115f4d4f0fdb.jpg
Id appreciate it if someone would let me know if this looks ok or does it need to be replaced? And is there a front and back side to the gasket? Or anyway i install it its ok?Anyway i know the problem isn't that big but i just dont like the fact that there is dripping even if it is for only a few minutes. And thanks in advance[emoji106]
 

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Hmmm... the gasket looks fine to me. There isn't a right/wrong way to reinstall the gasket. It night help to seal better if you can tell which is front and reinstall it the same way. Are you doing this with the car up on a lift in the air or just jack stand on the ground? It might be just a matter of alignment of the pieces if you doing it on jack stand as there not much levage to push and align the pieces?
 
Are you reusing the old gaskets? Use new ones and they will (or they should) compress into the shape of your fitting.
After driving for a while, the metal heats and expands, thus sealing the tiny gap(s).
Personally, I would seal the leaks up well instead of leaving them semi-leaky.
 
la_fx35 said:
Hmmm... the gasket looks fine to me. There isn't a right/wrong way to reinstall the gasket. It night help to seal better if you can tell which is front and reinstall it the same way. Are you doing this with the car up on a lift in the air or just jack stand on the ground? It might be just a matter of alignment of the pieces if you doing it on jack stand as there not much levage to push and align the pieces?
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Yeah I'm doing it with jack stands on the ground, unfortunately i don't have lift[emoji12] and i prefer doing it myself rather someone else doing it, thatswhy I'm using jack stands. And I'm no expert but from the looks they look aligned to me 775fe6176cef615b4771b5d417416132.jpg
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Let me know what you think and thank you so much[emoji106]

---------- Post added at 11:30 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:23 AM ----------
porkandbeans said:
Are you reusing the old gaskets? Use new ones and they will (or they should) compress into the shape of your fitting.
After driving for a while, the metal heats and expands, thus sealing the tiny gap(s).
Personally, I would seal the leaks up well instead of leaving them semi-leaky.
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Yes i am reusing the old gaskets, i think i'll give it try using new ones, and for the threaded bolt do you or anyone for that matter know what part number it is(the bolt)? Because i went to the dealer and they didn't have a clue how to find it[emoji24]and also how to get the threaded bolt off would be awesome[emoji51]
 

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Yeah, the next thing is to use a new gasket. Not sure what you by you threading a bolt. You mean one of the threaded stud came out with the nut?
 
la_fx35 said:
Yeah, the next thing is to use a new gasket. Not sure what you by you threading a bolt. You mean one of the threaded stud came out with the nut?
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What i mean by a threaded bolt is that you know how a nut should be hexagon shaped or whatever so basically due to mis-using pliers and a wrench it became circular and hard to remove, basically what i meant to say is a stripped nut not a threaded bolt[emoji51]sorry
 
Oh ok. You can try hammer a smaller 12 pt socket onto the rounded nut. A 6 pt socket may not have enough point to grab the nut.
 
there is likely a small dent or crack letting air thru... try a new gasket

for stripped just cut the bolt, drill a dole through, use a new bolt and nut. I had to do this on my 05 FX35 when the bolt rusted to the flange..
 
If it doesn't bother you to much do away with the flanges and weld it straight through. If it does bother you and just can't seem to fix it then now may be a good time to upgrade the exhaust.

Sent from my SM-N920V
 
As porkandbeans said use a new gasket. They compress and when reused may not conform exactly as the flanges could be off just enough for a minuscule gap to be present.
 
Just get a new gasket. In the picture, you can see where it's leaking. Look at the black spot on the bottom.
 
matrixx860 said:
If it doesn't bother you to much do away with the flanges and weld it straight through. If it does bother you and just can't seem to fix it then now may be a good time to upgrade the exhaust.

Sent from my SM-N920V
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Yeah I'm thinking if new gaskets don't work and hopefully they will, i heard that their is a muffler sealing silicon so id probably look into that before welding, and in terms of a new exhaust I'm contemplating between a custom made exhaust and an ark exhaust cant really make up my mind, but i think I'm going to go with custom made because it would have cutouts so it can be quiet when i want it to be, which is a big bonus. And thanks for the tips[emoji106]
 
So i thought id just finish this up, i ended up buying 3 gaskets and it turns out that the resonator gasket is different than the muffler gaskets, for the bolt i had the hardest time getting it off, i tried pretty much everything, finally after 3 hours i decided to just cut the it,anyway installed new gaskets and just to be safe i put some gasket maker silicon to make sure it didnt leak, and thankfully it didnt[emoji111]️

---------- Post added at 11:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:59 PM ----------

I took a little video once the resonator was off, so basically for everyone whose curious this is what an fx35 sounds like with resonator delete and muffler deletehttps://vimeo.com/157097509
 
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